The Magician's Assistant

2

"Rachael!" John said from the counter.

Rachael exited the closet. She'd been organizing shelves for the better part of an hour since the old magician had left.

John was an older man. A few strands of his black hair were starting to go gray, and he seemed to be just a little bit slower than he used to be. He was tall and muscular, and always seemed as though he had just returned from some sort of difficult job.

John offered Rachael a fresh apple.

"Here, I thought you could use something to eat," he said.

Rachael took the apple and began to eat it. John produced a second apple and began to eat it as well.

"Any business today?" John asked with a full mouth.

Rachael told John about the old magician in between bites.

"Always nice to get an interesting traveler, did he-" John said before his voice trailed off.

"What? What is it?" Rachael asked.

John picked up an old coin purse that had been lying on the counter. Rachael instantly recognized it. She stopped mid bite and set the apple down.

"Is this his?" John asked, openly concerned.

"Oh, hell," Rachael said.

It was obvious by the weight of the purse that there was quite a lot of money inside. It could easily be enough to pay for all the old man's traveling expenses.

Rachael imagined that old man, who had helped her out and asked for nothing in return, stranded in some small village with all the money he'd been counting on suddenly gone. She felt a horrible feeling of guilt well up inside of her.

This was the second costly mistake she'd made today. Sure, the old man was at fault as well, but she really should have caught the error before he left.

Rachael snatched the purse from John's hand and headed for the door.

"I'm going to return this to him," she said.

"Are you sure? He'll probably be back looking for it soon enough," John said, trusting Rachael enough to know she wouldn't steal any money.

Rachael put on her old, brown coat that had been sitting on a stand by the door.

"I owe him for that ornament. This is the least I can do,"

"And if you can't find him?"

"It hasn't even been a full hour since he left. An old timer like him couldn't have gone far. I'll ask around town for him. I'll try to be back by sundown if I can't get a decent lead,"

"Good luck. I'll watch the store,"

Rachael nodded and walked out the door. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was just a few brief hours away from setting.

The store Rachael worked in sat on a large, well traveled dirt road on the edge of town. It was a pathetic way to travel by the standards of the coastal cities, but this far into the deep, sparsely populated inland forests it was about as good as it got.

Rachael ran down the road towards the cluster of buildings that served as the center of the town of Woodridge. After just a few minutes of asking around, Rachael found out that the old man had headed down a barely used trail into the forest.

Rachael quickly found the trail, and headed down it.

If the road Rachael had taken into town was lacking, the path she found herself on now was downright pathetic. It seemed to only fit one person at a time, and Rachael quickly found herself having to force through tree branches and shrubbery that had started growing over the small sliver of cleared land she was traveling on.

It was obvious that within a few months the forest would completely swallow up this trail. Whether or not anyone would notice the loss of this little bit of infrastructure was a mystery to Rachael.

With every branch that clung to the edges of her skirt or came close to hitting her in the face, she realized more and more she certainly wouldn't miss it.

Thankfully, the trail still stuck out in the otherwise densely overgrown forest, so at least getting lost wouldn't be an issue. There were some footprints to follow as well, though it was impossible for Rachael to identify their age.

Rachael considered turning back, but quickly dropped the idea. She just had to follow the linear path ahead of her. If it split, then she'd give up, but as long as that didn't happen her target should be just somewhere ahead.

Of course, it was always possible that the old man had walked off the trail at some point and wandered off into the forest. If he had done that, then no amount of lost money would get him out of that mess.

The sun was steadily sinking lower and lower in the sky. It wouldn't be long until the orange tint of sunset filled the forest.

"How far could he have possibly gotten?" Rachael said to herself.

Rachael's pace had slowed considerably since she had stepped into the forest, but she figured she should have caught up to the old man a long time ago. If she had to force her way through tree branches then so did he.

As she continued on without any sign of the old man, Rachael felt frustration welling up inside of her. How far could he possibly go in such a short amount of time, and why did he chose such an awful route to use?

"Hey! Anyone out here!" she yelled, not hiding her anger.

Rachael yelled a few more times. Aside from startling the local wildlife, she achieved nothing.

It was very late in the day, and getting caught in the woods at night unprepared was something 

Rachael had been warned to avoid ever since she was a little girl. It would take awhile to get back to town, so starting back as soon as possible would be for the best.

"Well, I guess I tried," she said, defeated.

Rachael turned around, and slowly marched back the way she'd came. She moved at an even slower pace than before. She stared at her own footprints as they passed beneath her.

Maybe he already took some other way back to the store, she thought.

Unbeknownst to Rachael, while no human had responded to her yelling, something very close to one had heard her. Now that being was moving towards her position, slowly and silently.